4 Features Your Sports Bras Must Have (From Oprah’s “Bra Whisperer”)

For many, especially the well-endowed among us, choosing bras can be potentially as demoralizing as bathing suit shopping (though for different reasons).

The trouble: If you head to nonspecific shop, you flounder on your own. At old-school lingerie stores, while they know their stuff, you're likely to get felt up by an elderly saleswoman, who smells of Virginia Slims and pungent perfume.

Still, finding the right bra is quite important and, for those of us who work out, a truly supportive sports bra is an essential contraption. Just ask Susan Nethero, the owner of 16 Intimacy stores countrywide and "The Bra Whisperer" endorsed by Oprah et al.

We got the 411 from the master on picking the a sports bra that truly fits your body:

Lululemon Athletica’s Ta Ta Tamer II

You may think you’re wearing a perfectly acceptable sports bra. In fact, you’re probably not: “The majority of women today are wearing what we call ‘compression’ sports bras, which creates stability by pressing down against the chest wall,” explains Nethero. “But that’s actually the worst way to get support.”

Breast support is essential medically for maintaining firmness and skin integrity, asserts The Bra Whisperer, who has to restrain herself from approaching jogging strangers on the street with bra suggestions: “A huge number of women are experiencing some breast injury from tissue moving up and down or in
and out during exercise. We
know that 9.5 million women exercise without wearing a sports bra at all
— just a bra shelf in a tank top or a regular bra. Without ample support, ligaments get
elongated, so there’s premature loss of elasticity and, hence, stretch
marks. If we can reduce breast movement with a sports bra, we
can reduce those effects. It’s even more significant than wearing the right regular bra everyday.”

That’s why Nethero and her crew of trained experts approach bra fitting like a science. If you were to make a complimentary “Bra Fit Makeover” appointment at any of Intimacy’s locations, you’d be in for a 45-minute personalized session that would involve answering questions about your lifestyle, re-learning how to correctly put on a bra and even – for sports bras – jumping up and down on a trampoline!

After chatting with Nethero, I was happy to learn that the bras by which my fellow “Fit Like Us” blogger Bari and I both happen to swear — Lululemon’s Ta Ta Tamer and Ta Ta Tamer II respectively — seem to fit the expert’s credentials for decent options.

Does your bra fit the bill? Here’s Nethero’s checklist below:

1.
Cups!It’s really important that your bra has cup sizing (as opposed to small, medium or large compression style), so there’s support for each breast, just like with an underwire bra. This is important for daily vanity reasons too: Pressing the tissue down in a compression bra makes you look wider. Nethero’s philosophy is to lift the breasts up and get them centered because it gives more torso length and creates a sense of balance.

2.
Extra Support:Many of the best sports bra are like double bras with additional layers and side panels — these are great ways to
get extra support for high-intensity exercises. (Supportive stitching around each breast is called ‘breast encapsulating.’) If you’re doing cardio like jogging, step, horseback riding, tennis — where your movements are back and forth and side to side — that’s when you’re really going to stretch and strain the tissue at the root near the breast wall without the proper bra.

3.
Moisture-Wicking Fabric:When you work up a sweat from exercise, you can actually trap moisture under the breast that can cause a rash. Make sure your bra is made from a fabric that doesn’t incubate that moisture.

4.
Adjustable Straps:You can loosen them when you doyoga and tighten during high-intensity workouts. Either way, straps are integral to creating a supportive environment for your boobs. With a good sports bra, Nethero believes you can reduce bounce by up to 74%.

Great sports bras are actually available up to an H cup, so now you have no excuse. It’s too important! “Once you have that strain and damage that makes you lose firmness, it’s irreversible except with surgery. Everyone is trying to get fit and healthy and they’re actually causing damage to their breast tissue,” laments Nethero.

In an ideal world, you’d go in for a fitting and make sure that you’re truly choosing the right size. In the meantime, here are some of The Bra Whisperer’s favorite options:

Goddess Sport ($44): Goddess (from the same folks as Freya) is for a fuller, more plus size figure. Their bras go all the way up to H Cup. The fabric inside has an almost terry feeling to it, so very soft.

Lastly …. a SNEAK PEEK!

Panache Sports Bra (about $68): After 3(!) years of research, Panache is launching their sports bra in October/November. They’ve worked to create a bra — in sizes D to H — that reduces bounce by, wait for it, 83%!